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It’s simple--they remembered them.The Beatles would sometimes write the words down. But the music was almost always in their heads.George Martin was a excellent arranger. He wrote the string quartet part that backed Paul and his guitar on “Yesterday.”He wrote the string octet part that was the musical basis for the song “Eleanor Rigby.”But he didn’t transcribe the Beatles songs or anything like that.In pop music, creating the sheet music is usually just about the last thing that happens. I should know. That’s what I did for many years—I arranged sheet music at Hal Leonard.I’d almost always do this by starting with blank music paper and a pencil and transcribing the actual recording.I did everything—pop songs, country songs, jazz recordings, and lots of Disney animated musicals. The standard sheet music format is called PVG—which stands for Piano/Vocal/Guitar.Occasionally, for big Broadway shows such as “Phantom of the Opera” or “Les Miz,” I’d get an orchestral score, which was really useful. But most of the time, there was nothing but the recording.Hal Leonard obtained the print rights to the Beatles catalog in the mid-1980’s. All the Beatles’ songs had already been made into sheet music. But when we looked at what had been done, we determined that it hadn't always been done really well. So we started over.I transcribed every Beatles song from their official studio albums (except “Revolution #9,” which isn’t really a song).All that music is still in print. Of course, all the Beatles’ songs have been arranged in dozens of print formats - PVG, Guitar TAB, Easy Piano, Piano Solo, Lead Sheet, Easy Guitar TAB, Big Note, Ukulele, etc. The Beatles catalog is still one of the best selling catalogs in print music.Sheet music is still usually done the same way is was done 30 or more years ago.

Prior to the late 1970’s or early 1980’s, sheet music was generally published in a piano friendly key—such as C, F, G or E-flat major. It was also published in a key suitable for a male baritone singer. Yes, good old male chauvinism controlled the print music industry.Look at all the standard songs in books such as “The Real Book” (which has six editions now). The vocal songs are all in a Baritone key. They were all published that way back in the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s.For example, “Over the Rainbow” is almost always published in E flat major. What key did Judy Garland sing it in? She sang it in A—as far away from E flat as you can go. It’s published in E Flat major because that is a good male Baritone key for that song.So, this was true of Beatles songs published in the 1960’s. They were often transposed to more “friendly” keys (i.e. the wrong keys), and often simplified rhythmically, melodically and harmonically.That is, until 1986, when Hal Leonard Corporation acquired the print rights to the Beatles catalog, including the songs of Lennon and McCartney and the songs of George Harrison. Hal Leonard still controls those rights and have been exclusive publishers of the Beatles print music in the U.S. for more than 30 years.I was the staff keyboard arranger at Hal Leonard in 1986. We looked at the sheet music that had been published up until then and we decided to do it all over again, because it was filled with wrong notes, wrong chords, wrong words, and had been published in wrong keys. We preferred to publish popular music in the key of the original performer.So I started from scratch, with a mechanical pencil (a Pentel 0.9 mm), an eraser (more useful than the pencil) and a blank sheet of music paper, and I transcribed ALL the Beatles music and put it into Piano/Vocal/Guitar (PVG) format. Those arrangements are all still in print (in addition to all kinds of other Beatles editions—Guitar TAB, Easy piano, ukulele, choral, etc.).That was about two months worth of full-time work for me.Our philosophy was to print the songs in the original keys. The key the Beatles recorded in the most often was G major, followed by C major, E major, A major and D major. E, A, D and G can all be considered guitar keys. After all, the Beatles were primarily a guitar band. C is generally considered the easiest of keys. Those 5 keys represent about 90% of the Beatles songs.The Beatles actually recorded songs in every major and minor key other than C# major and F# major. But generally just a few songs in each key.The Beatles catalog is one of the most valuable and popular in the music print industry. The only thing that compares to it is a few blockbuster Broadway shows, such as “Phantom of the Opera” and “Les Miserables” (I arranged those, too), or movie musicals such as “The Greatest Showman” or, perhaps, the latest Disney animated feature.I believe that the Beatles catalog will always retain its popularity and value. The songs by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, have become ubiquitous in our world. They are the equivalent of songs by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Rodgers and Hammerstein.The Beatles will always be in print.

One becomes a composer by writing music. What is keeping you? Get some blank music paper or a notation program. Or get Garageband and just play something and worry about notation later.Really, what is keeping you that you need to ask this question? Victor Eijkhout's answer to I want to be a composer but I have trouble composing. What should I do?See also How does one become a composer? and How does one become a great music composer? or maybe How do people become film composers?